Bees are the kind of social insects most appreciated and studied since antiquity, whose usefulness is certainly known since prehistoric times. As other insects in the family of Apidae, bees collect nectar and pollen to feed their offspring and to store them in their combs as food storage.
While it is not the only group of pollinators (insects which, with their activities, carry pollen from flower to flower allowing pollination and the subsequent formation of the fruit), honey bees are undoubtedly the most important one for humans, also for the various products that their colonies develop from nectar and other materials collected by foraging, including not only honey, but also beeswax, propolis, royal jelly. Unlike other social apidae like bumblebees, which perform similar functions as pollinators useful to agriculture but most of which do not survive the winter (with the exception of fertilized queens), the bees accumulate and process amounts of food stocks to be sufficient to pass the winter, because their colony is able to winter along with their queen, which can live 4-5 years.
For these reasons, bees have been used since the dawn of civilization as real pets, and were reared according to ancestral and consolidated techniques over time, applying a knowledge which is a branch of animal husbandry, beekeeping.
Although the known species of the Apidae family are currently about five thousands, the genus of bees (Apis) is only one. It comprises only seven species recognized as distinct species, the best known of which are Apis to mellifera (European honeybee), Apis cerana (Eastern honey bee or Asiatic honey bee), Apis florea (dwarf honeybee, widespread in South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Apis dorsata (giant honey bee of India). Only the first two species, Apis mellifera and Apis cerana, can be bred by humans and are actually made “domestic”, the first one at least, from the times of ancient Egyptians.
Apis mellifera is the most widespread species of the genus Apis in the world: native to Egypt, it spread millions of years ago in the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa, and then in the presence of man it naturally populated Europe, Africa, middle East and part of Siberia. It was introduced in the seventeenth and nineteenth century also in the American continent, where it was not originally present, and it was also brought in Australia and New Zealand by the colonizers. The most well-known European subspecies of Apis mellifera are identified by geographic areas, separated by mountains that swarms may not overcome, where they are native and have lived with a few external contacts. There are currently 28 recognized subspecies of Apis mellifera, which include the black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), native of northern Europe, the Italian yellow honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica), which occupies most of Italy, the Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera Carnica) which is native to Austria and Slovenia, the Caucasian bee (Apis mellifera caucasica), which lives mainly in the Caucasus and Georgia, and so on. Mixed breeds and hybrids have been created by human action, either voluntary or not.
In sedentary beekeeping, hives are fixed and the area of collection of the bees does not exceed 2 or 3 km radius around the hive, which sets limits to the collection. For this reason it is also practiced nomadic beekeeping, which involves moving the hives from site to site, depending on the presence of nectar-producing plants (i.e. sugar bases to be provided to the bees). Such movements, in addition to increasing the productivity, allow the production of single-flower honeys, allowing a better offer of the final product. The transhumance is a very ancient farming technique, already practiced by nomads, who carried their hives on the back of an animal. In Italy on the Po, as in Egypt on the Nile, the hives were loaded onto special boats that sailed up the river toward regions with the most favorable honeydew. When a certain waterline was reached, the hives were full. Currently the movement of hives occurs on the road: they are loaded at nightfall (when all the bees have returned to the beehive) and are downloaded at sunrise in the new site. The hives are often downloaded and re-housed in the new area chosen for the pasture, but sometimes, in order to reduce maintenance work, the hives are left directly on vehicles equipped for this purpose.
As already noted, the bees play a vital role in the reproduction of plants with entomophilous pollination. To understand the role of bees in agriculture around the world it is enough to consider that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has estimated that 71 out of the 100 species of plants that provide 90% of the food worldwide are associated with bee pollination. Over the last fifty years, the agricultural production independent from insect pollination has doubled, and the agricultural production that requires pollination by insects has increased fourfold, thus indicating that world agriculture has become more pollinator-dependent. Both the FAO and other independent research organizations of this field have predicted that the economic value of pollination worldwide for agriculture and related sectors is of the order of 180 billion U.S. dollars, of which 32 billion dollars are in the United States.
It is known that the population dynamics of a bee colony is significantly influenced by the nutritional status of the colony, which controls the development, production and survival of the colony. It is also well known that the necessary food for bees are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and vitamins: carbohydrates provide energy and are contained in nectar and honey, the other substances are present in pollen and are essential both for the production of larval food and for a balanced functioning of the bee's life. In recent years, for various reasons (including illness, poisoning, reduction of foraging areas, etc.) it has often become an indispensable requirement for the beekeeper to intervene with additional nutrition, which favors the survival of the hives or prepares them for a certain flowering (Frilli F. et al., Confronto tra gli effetti di diversi tipi di alimento per le api, Notiziario ERSA 3/2009). Sugar nutrition is the most practiced by beekeepers; it consists of delivering syrups or patties (obtained from sugars from various sources) with the aim of integrating the energy needs of the bees. In relation to the needs and to the administration time, sugar nutrition can be “stimulant”, if carried out to increase the egg laying by the queen or to induce the colonies to recover after stress factors (poisonings, diseases, swarming, environmental adversity), or “compensatory”, if the aim is to build up the winter stocks to avoid starvation of hives during periods of low availability.
Protein nutrition, which compensates for a lack of pollen, is a less applied nutrition technique, but sometimes it can be of vital importance to a colony of bees: in fact, the lack of pollen may entail a reduction of the bees' longevity and the reduction or total blockade of the brood, with consequent depopulation and collapse of the colonies. It should be kept in mind that in no case an artificial administration of proteins is able to completely replace pollen, and has effects only if it is carried out for a limited period of time.
Protein feeding can be done by providing the hives with (preharvested) pollen, by integrating the pollen with (up to 25% by weight of) an artificial protein component (supplemental protein nutrition) or by administering only artificial protein components (substitute protein nutrition). Very often various protein components (soybean meal, sunflower meal, yeast, milk powder, etc.) are mixed together to achieve higher nutritional value, but it is important that the total quantity of protein food preparation be between 10 and 15 wt %, as higher values can lead to toxic effects on bees.
Protein nutrition can be supplied by placing the powdered food outside the hive in special containers, or by placing the mixture inside the hive in deep frame feeders, or in patties over the combs, covered by the outer cover. In the latter case the food protein is almost always added with honey or sugar syrup until a pasty and semi-solid candy-like consistency is obtained (“protein cake”).
With reference to the choice of an appropriate food for a colony of honeybees, the International Patent Application publn. No. WO 2006/073955 (The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture) having title “Artificial diets for domestic honey bees” discloses water dispersible preparations consisting of homogeneous mixtures of nutrients in effective amounts and proportions to support growth and development of domestic bees. The proposed formulations are considered particularly advantageous for feeding bee colonies that are moved frequently from one area to another: in the absence of sufficient natural resources, such as, e.g., during the transfers, the artificial diet preparations proposed should be able to provide all the necessary nutrients for the life of the colony. The components required in the described nutritional composition are proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, ash, cholesterol, ascorbic acid, an acidifier, an antimicrobial/antifungal agent for the preservation of the mixture and water, in the appropriate proportions. As a source of proteins and lipids soy and/or egg are proposed.
One of the major problems of the apiary is to safeguard the health of the colonies. The honey bee diseases that may develop are numerous, as a result of several pathogenetic organisms, including parasite insects, unicellular fungi, bacteria and viruses which can affect the bees in the different stages of their development.
The two best known pathogens to the beekeepers are Varroa destructor mite and Nosema apis microsporidium. The Varroa mite is an external parasite, which attaches at the body of the bee and weakens it by sucking its hemolymph. During this process the mite may also transmit viral RNA agents to the bee. The Varroa mite was found also on other pollinator insects, such as bumblebees, beetles and flies, but it can only reproduce in a colony of honeybees. Once in the colony, the female mite enters a brood cell of honey bees, giving preference to a cell containing a male brood, i.e. a drone larva. Once the cell is capped, the mite lays its eggs, after which the young mites hatch more or less at the same moment as the young bee develops, and leaves the cell with its host.
The population dynamics highlighted above shows that a large population of mites in autumn could lead to a crisis when drones rearing ceases and the mites turn to the larvae of worker bees, causing a rapid decimation of the population and often the death of the hive. For this reason the varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact in the apiary industry.
To fight or prevent the infestation by Varroa destructor different physical or mechanical methods are known and used to control the number of mites in the colony, as well as miticide products, both synthetic (pyrethroids, organophosphates) or of natural origin, such as oxalic acid-based preparations, or preparations based on thyme essential oil (or on synthetic thymol).
The unicellular fungus Nosema apis (more recently found in a similar form also in Apis cerana, and called in this circumstance Nosema ceranae) is characterized by a dormant state consisting of spores resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. The nosema spores, in fact, cannot be destroyed by freezing the contaminated combs. The spores are localized in intestinal epithelial cells and other cells of adult bees, where they begin the growth, heading for a series of cell divisions, invading the intestinal tract and thus causing the pathology known as nosemosis. This is manifested by dysentery evidenced by yellowish droppings outside the hive, a slow growth of the colony, disjointed wings and distended abdomen in affected individuals. The mature spores come out with the feces, contributing to the propagation of the disease.
If untreated, the nosema infection may reach the queen, causing an early replacement of the queen by workers remained healthy. The disease hinders the digestion of pollen, and therefore reduces the life of bees, and can be fought with greater difficulty in colder climates, where bees spend more time in the hive. In order to reduce the infection beekeepers use to increase the aeration in the hive and remove, as much as possible, the honey gathered by the bees for winter, feeding them with sugar solutions in replacement. The pharmacological treatments available in case of need are based on fumagillin, an antibiotic that was shown to be particularly effective for inhibiting the reproduction of spores in the host, but is not able to kill them. Spores can be inactivated, in the disinfestation of the beehive, by treating them with acetic acid or formalin.
Other pathogens for Apis mellifera which have been investigated for their possible involvement in recent episodes of honeybees epidemics are viral agents, including the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV or APV), which is considered to be a common infective agent of bees, and a virus related to the previous one, described in 2004, known as Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) due to the fact that it was identified in Israel for the first time. It was considered that the IAPV virus plays a critical role in cases of sudden collapse of honeybees colonies infested by the parasite mite Varroa destructor. 
Another viral pathogen recently studied for similar reasons is the invertebrate iridescent virus type 6 (IIV-6), which was identified in 2010 as a coinfectious agent in several colonies of honey bees collapsed as a result of infection by Nosema ceranae. 
Over the last twenty years, parasite mites have certainly caused severe damage to beekeeping, also in view of the fact that they transmit harmful viruses to bees, therefore causing significant losses of colonies each year. However, while most of the deaths during the winters of 2006/07 and 2007/2008 were mainly attributed to parasitic mites, about 25-30% of dead colonies showed symptoms contrasting with mites or any other known cause.
Considering for instance the United States, in the thirty years from 1976 to 2006 there has been a drastic reduction in the number of wild bees (now almost extinct in the U.S.), and a significant, though gradual, decline in the number of families kept by beekeepers. This latter number, according to official data, declined from about 6 million in 1940 down to 2.3 million in 2008. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors such as urbanization, pesticide use in agriculture, acariosis and varroa, beekeepers' retirement and closure of businesses. However, between late 2006 and early 2007, the reduction rate has increased sharply, reaching proportions hitherto unknown, and the term “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) was coined at that time to describe these sudden disappearances.
With Colony Collapse Syndrome beekeepers around the world are facing one of the toughest challenges in decades: to date a constant presence of colonies of healthy bees cannot be guaranteed, as a combination of causes, currently not fully understood, is more and more often causing mass to deaths of bees. It is a phenomenon not well known that, as noted, has been found for the first time in the colonies of bees in North America at the end of 2006, and that manifested itself in similar phenomena in Europe in subsequent years, for which families of bees (Apis mellifera) abruptly disappear.
Possible causes that have been suggested for CCD comprise management practices of the beekeepers, especially the stress on the colonies due to environmental changes, malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies associated with the presence of extensive monocultures, heavy use of new neonicotinoid-based pesticides and related practices and procedures for application, various pathogens such as infestation by parasite mites, nosema infections and viral infections (including IAPV virus), climate change, electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones or other devices created by man, genetically modified crops (GMOs) such as GM maize, new exotic pests and pathogens, decreased immunity to pathogens, and the subtle interactions between two or more of these factors. It is not yet known whether only one of these factors may be the real responsible factor, or it is a combination of factors which act independently in different areas affected by CCD, or factors that act in combination with each other, although more recent information suggest that a combination of several factors is the most likely hypothesis.
As a result of the foregoing, Colony Collapse Disorder was defined as a new syndrome of multifactorial kind which leads to the death of a very large number of colonies of bees, and that caused, from 2007 to date, losses of colonies greater than 35% per year. With regard to the diagnosis, a colony which has collapsed from CCD tends to show all of the following signs:                a) presence of a brood of abandoned larvae (usually bees do not abandon the brood until they are all hatched);        b) presence of food stores, both pollen and honey, which                    are not immediately robbed by other bees,            when they are attacked by other insects, the attack is noticeably delayed;                        c) presence of the queen in the beehive (otherwise, the phenomenon is not attributable to CCD).        
At present there are no known treatments or specific solutions for the prevention and treatment of Colony Collapse Disorder, nor methods, techniques or procedures exist which the beekeeper can put in place with a reasonable expectation of success to protect his hives from such a sudden, partly unexplained event, as is the collapse of a colony from CCD.
In the light of the foregoing, the present invention is therefore aimed at providing a method for the prevention and the treatment of Colony Collapse Disorder in colonies of domestic honeybees that have not already undergone an episode of irreversible collapse, with a view to safeguarding the health of those families which have not yet been affected by the syndrome, and to improve the immune resistance and overall nutritional conditions of domestic bees.